A Century of Labour
by Jon Cruddas
Polity £25

LABOUR MP Jon Cruddas has produced a timely account of the 100-year history of the Labour Party.

The retiring MP for Dagenham and Rainham poses a number of challenging questions throughout, not the least being does the party have a purpose?

He is pretty scathing of the present leader Keir Starmer, noting that “apart from his actual name, little ties Starmer to the ethical and spiritual concerns of Labour’s early founders, figures such as Keir Hardy and George Lansbury.”

Though while critical of Starmer’s ditching of his 10 pledges from the original leadership contest, that presented him as the unity candidate, he intriguingly suggests if anything his programme is Wilsonian. So neither Corbynism nor New Labour restoration but a programme seeing an active state role in increasing investment and growth.

Cruddas runs through the history of the Labour Party from its formation, examining the different governments of Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929. Then the 1945 Clement Attlee government, Harold Wilson and James Callaghan and finally the Tony Blair/Gordon Brown years.

Interestingly, he always seems to see the party reverting to a gradualist, utilitarian approach, too often shaped by events rather than taking charge of them.

There seems to be a constant tendency to revert to austerity-based policy or seeming just to represent a lighter shade of blue conservatism.

Cruddas identified three traditions of justice in the party, which he constantly refers to throughout the book.These are human welfare, freedom and virtue. The three traditions were best interwoven with the Attlee government.

One criticism of the book is that the style of writing can be somewhat turgid.

One wonders, as the author labours through various academic theories, whether readers maybe lost. Once, through this early part of the book, the narrative relatively gallops along but many could fall at the early fences.

Other themes that could have been developed a little more are the what ifs, such as if Callaghan had gone to the country in autumn 1978, if John Smith had lived, if Al Gore had won the 2000 US presidential election and if Gordon Brown had called an election in autumn 2007.

Cruddas never stakes out his own position clearly, though at a guess John Smith may well most closely represent his views.

This book though is full of excellent analysis of the first 100 years of the Labour Party. Throughout, it also poses many questions. The retiring MP seems no fan of Starmer but also seems to suggest the jury is out in terms of what sort of Labour government he is likely to lead.

One theme that runs through the book is that of the death of the Labour Party lurking never far from the surface. The question of course is most prevalent during the long periods out of power.

The party, though, has proved remarkably good at reinventing itself and will need to do so again over future years. Cruddas suggests that finding or refinding its purpose will be fundamental to the  future of the party — what that cannot mean is being a lighter shade of blue.